Pokèmon of the TRPG: Where do they stand?

This thread is designed to discuss Pokèmon found in the TRPG, and, eventually, I'm hoping to form a tier list for each of the regions (excluding promos). Anyways, for now I just want to discuss some Pokèmon and the merits of using them in the TRPG. I'm going to start the discussion with five different poison types you can find in Amaya. Formatting might be rough due to mobile.

Group 1: Poison
Poison types have never been the most popular type, but since fairies appeared and became popular, they have become more valuable. Amaya has introduced some particularly good poison types, so let's take a look at the ones everybody can get.

Thylere is the only Poison type you can find before the Toxic Tunnels; it can be found on the first route if you explore further. Thylere has a good 470 bst complete with a huge 110 Attack. These stats will make most early random trainers tremble. It has dual-STAB very early, and this is easily abused against many Pokemon.

Despite its great stats for the area, Thylere struggles in important fights early on. In Chrome Stadium, the trio of Tamachroa stop Thylere completely. Their hefty defenses combined with the rock typing wall our semi-manticore friend entirely. Ferris is even worse since his team cannot even be poisoned.

If you keep training Thylere past this, you've got spirit. It will be fairly useful against Iris, packing a good super effective STAB attack in Poison Tail; however, any usefulness it had will start to fade past this as enemies get more powerful.

In the late game: It's difficult to give an opinion when TMs are missing. It has a low BST for the late game though; however, if you pick up an Acid Rain summoner and Thylere's Hidden Ability, Catalyst, it could be a surprisingly effective attacker. Acid Rain nabs it a defense boost and a huge speed boost to remedy its mediocre physical bulk and low speed, and its level up movepool provides decent neutral coverage.

From the Toxic Tunnels, things are far more varied, so it gets harder to talk about specific battles (most people will be able to handle battles with something). I'm just going to talk about the relative effectiveness of each mon vs things you have a high chance of facing after obtaining it.

Inferatris is the rarest Pokèmon in the Toxic Tunnels, and it is not worth hunting for. Every other poison type there will evolve to serve you better. Sorry Inferatris lovers.

Inferatris has a great typing for resisting damaging status in Fire/Poison. Intimidate is also a great ability. Unfortunately it doesn't have much else to work with.

This Pokèmon is slow, and the Amaya region carries a lot of speedy water, ground, rock, and psychic types. Inferatris has a horribly shallow movepool and average attacking stats, so it simply cannot deal with threats such as Gardevoir, Zagitarius, Harpure, Gallade, Miralair, Starmie, Flygon, etc.

If you want to use Inferatris, use it to support your team. It will not function well alone, but it can learn Toxic, Will-o-Wisp, and Glare. These are all great options for crippling foes so the rest of your team can have an easier time.

Get a Gobbear with Run Away. It will evolve soon. Gobbear is hard to use and it has few redeeming qualities (besides Gobbull that is).

You can find Gobbull in the Toxic Tunnels, so it might be worth hunting for one with Sheer Force. This is a great Pokèmon if you have the right ability. Without Sheer Force, Gobbull is only decent.

Get that Decimate relearn move as soon as you can on Gobbull. With Sheer Force and STAB, Decimate has an effective 216 base power off of a 115 Attack stat. Furthermore, nothing is immune to it. Unless something has a good defense and resists dark type moves, Decimate will rip it apart. Sheer Force boosted Poison Moves are useful for killing those fairy types, and you can tutor Zen Headbutt to wipe out Fighting types. Rapteroc, Tyranitar, and other Gobbull are the only Pokèmon in the Amaya dex that resist this trio.

Gobbull has decent bulk and speed alongside brute strength, so it makes a viable late game Pokèmon in the TRPG. Watch out for fast ground types that mods may throw at you though.

This line is arguably the best non-legendary Poison type line in Amaya, but only if you have its hidden ability. Poison Sky causes its foes to take periodic damage, and it gives the line great physical bulk. This ability also allows it to support Pokèmon running Catalytic (if there are actually any good abusers).

Let's look at the rest though. Great special bulk, good special attack, passable speed for a bulky attacker, and (presumably) the awesome movepool most poison types have. These make it a strong, but not the best, pick if you cannot get the hidden ability. It, at the very least, will be the bane of the onslaught of powerful fairy types in the region.

While it can take hits from both sides and deal out good damage, its level up movepool is bland. It needs tutors and TMs to be an effective pick. Powerful physical ground types (Volterra, Flygon) will always lay waste to it with ease. Without coverage options provided by external sources, Steel types wall it completely.

This can be the best Poison type Amaya has to offer, but you have to put a lot into it to get it to that point. If you can't put in that effort, turn to Gobbull or the final poison type in my list...

I think this is the best Poison line Amaya has to offer. It requires less work than Sauroxic to use optimally, and it is able to abuse it's dragon typing more than most dragons currently can.

Neurake can be found in the first route of West Amaya, but it will evolve soon after you find it. It's not worth talking about.

Miasmyrm has a great ability in Rough Skin, and most people will want to use that. It's fine, but Miasmyrm's real potential comes from spamming powerful dragon Moves without punishment. Spiteful, its hidden ability, gives Miasmyrm an attack boost when a Pokèmon takes no damage from a attack. The plethora of fairies running around Amaya cannot safely switch into Miasmyrm because they risk boosting it's already great attack further.

Now combine this with dragon dance, and you have a Pokèmon that can take out a huge portion of the Amaya Elite Four on its own. It has great bulk and a great physical attack; its speed is lack luster, but after a dance, it can outspeed what it needs to in the Amaya dex (hard hitting ground types, psychic/fairy types).

Its level set leaves Steel types as the sole type able to wall it; however, it will likely get earthquake as a TM (I'm noticing a trend here). This means that Miasmyrm should only really have trouble with Skarmory and Ferrothorn in Amaya. Bring a fire type. If you don't have Spiteful, bring something to deal with Gardevoir.

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Anyways, since this is the first post, I expect it to be a little rough. Feel free to comment, give your opinions, criticize my opinions (constructively please), make suggestions for themes/Pokèmon to look at next, etc.

I think of the Poison-types in Amaya, the Amayan ones only leave me with Poison Sky Sauroxic as a utility support Pokemon.

I had been planning to run a Stall team for Amaya's Grand Festival, and the other Poison-types that fit Chernabog come from outside Amaya completely. With minimal interference, I should only have to obtain a few non-Amaya Pokemon for his mandatory Fresh Start in Amaya, or otherwise I'd have to settle for Sinnoh's Grand Festival while running into minor complications from not being in Amaya.

The problem is that Amaya's EPIC was left incomplete, and whether or not TMs are known for various Pokemon would be hard to find out unless you were in EPIC at the time of its make.

I do hope that for PTU, that Tauradonna (my only non-Chernabog muse) doesn't run into the same issues with Poison-types that are prominent in Amaya TRPG.

I might cover canon-mon too. Depends how interesting they are with OI tools.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure you want to base coverage of canonmons off of that.

Why not base analysis of the "canon" regions on what makes them different from, say, playing Pokemon Platinum? What's in these regions that's new, both story and mechanics-wise? It might help allow for understanding of why some strategies will be better in the TRPG than others, rather than having people guess themselves or, if they're like me, be unable to do one playstyle {I can't, and never will, do Hyper Offense} for mindset reasons.

We'll see when I get to that point, and that might not be for a long while.

Today I'm looking at the birds of Amaya. Flying types are horribly underrated; most are used for their other typing, but flying itself is a stellar typing for offense. A grand total of 3 types (Steel, Rock, Electric) resist it, and many have additional STAB to get around these resistances. I'm going to be talking about Carda, Tinjay, and Amirok. The other three will be covered later.

Carda, Cardial, Cardastra

The classic three-stage early bird of Amaya is a fairly decent contender for a spot on your team.

Carda has 35/60/55 offenses which make it a fairly decent specially inclined attacker. This, however, is hampered by its dreadful early special movepool. It consists of gust. Luckily for Carda, Zen Forest and Leef exist, so it can Gust those little buggers to death for early exp grinding. Carda is pretty useless against Chrome brothers and Ferris, so pick up something to deal with them (Dolventine is not bad for Ferris).

Carda is stuck with gust, so it is hard to use in Zoa Elders too. It doesn't get completely obliterated, however. After this, it should soon evolve into Cardial. Cardial gains the ghost type which makes it immune to three types in total, a huge boon. It's offensive stats are upgraded to 45/78/75 making it an even better special attacker. Unfortunately, Cardial is still stuck with gust until level 22 where it picks up Hex. Cardial will destroy Iris's Leef, but Verdeguar possesses attacking options in Bite and Thunder Fang that can tear through Cardial's shoddy defense.

Ryo is the next gym, and he's not much easier. Flickle shouldn't pose much of a problem, but Flarake and Marake have great attacking stats that allow them to blow through Cardial. Cardial can't do much in return with its bad levelset.

Kenji is very easily manageable if you get Featherstorm. He has a hard time doing much to the type combination.

Hopefully you have a Cardastra by the time you get to Diedre, because that will make to fight easier. Cardastra suffers the same problems it's predecessors suffer however; it has awful STAB options. The lack of powerful ghost moves combined with bad defenses means it's more likely to be KO'd by Diedre than be doing the KOing.

In the west, Cardastra can deal significant damage to a lot of Pyrrha's team, but it needs a lot of support from water, ground, or rock types. It can also be effective against Ezio, but the special boosts from the stadium will prove irritating for it. It.pairs well with a physical dark type. In the east, Opal is hard because of the Rock typing. I don't recommend using Cardastra here. Bree can be handled to a degree by Cardastra if you have Shadow Ball, but avoid Kiyarok for Cardastra's sake.

Cardastra with Shadow Ball gives Gregor some real pain, but be careful against Volterra especially. It will kill Cardastra. Other things (except Sandasma) don't pull that off quite as easily.

If you've used Cardastra up to this point, keep it for the E4. It's a powerful special attacker, and it will surely find a use in the final battles (coughoraclescough).

Tinjay, Frostrel

The early two-stage bird, Tinjay trades late game usefulness for a stronger early presence.

Tinjay has 47/53/56 attacking stats, so it is physically stronger and marginally faster than Carda. This, combined with a more diverse early movepool makes it a stronger early option. Frost and Peck are its strongest tools, for they allow it to blow through the mess of early grass and flying types with relative ease; however, like Carda, the Chrome brothers' Tamachroa and Ferris will be troublesome for this little bird. A water type such as Dolventine would not be a terrible partner for handling Ferris (Chrome Stadium is just plain hard without promos tbh).

If you manage to evolve Tinjay before Iris, the gym should be no problem. Ice and Flying STAB are great in this scenario. Otherwise Verdeguar will prove problematic due to the fact that it's hella powerful and has Thunder Fang.

Frostrel is alright against Ryo. Flarake and Marake will both be difficult because they are heavy hitters, but Frostrel has decent STAB options to wear them down a bit. It won't clear the gym single handedly, but it can play a useful part.

Kenji will struggle against Frostrel, but, unlike Cardial, he can hit you very hard since Frostrel does not resist the fighting type. Be careful in this fight.

After this, other Pokémon begin to catch up, and Frostrel dwindles in effectiveness. It's useful against a couple of Diedre's Pokémon, but Arcanine-O will ruin it.

In the west Pyrrha demolishes Frostrel, and it is fairly ineffective against Ezio. In the east Opal destroys Frostrel. It can be effective against most of Bree's team utilizing the +1 evasion and powerful ice attacks, but Kiyarok demolishes it.

Powerful Ice STAB makes Frostrel good against Gregor, but it needs to be careful because it is not designed to be sweeping teams at this point. It has garbage defenses, and only decent attacking stats.

I wouldn't recommend it for the E4 just because of its mediocrety, but if you insist, I cannot stop you. This is an early game titan, but a late game slouch.

Amirok, Kiyarok

If you're looking for the best special attacking bird in Amaya, look no further. Amirok is blessed with the privilege of being an elemental bird, giving it a huge 540 bst when it evolves. Amirok also comes at a time where you fight Kenji, and it has a very easy time ripping through him.

Once you manage to get Thunderbolt at level 35, evolve this bird. Kiyarok has incredible 90/110/130 offenses, so it will probably become the premier attacker on your team.

Everything Diedre has can be easily handled by Kiyarok, but I wouldn't try to solo it.

In the West, Kiyarok holds its own fairly well against both Pyrrha and Ezio. There should be few issues there. In the East, Opal can be a bit problematic since Kiyarok is fairly frail and has difficulty OHKOing most of her team. Bree is easy.

Gregor is tricky since Kiyarok can't easily obliterate him, but also can't be easily obliterated. Use Kiyarok to wear down some things, but you might want to let the rest of your team shine here.

This is a monster throughout the region, and that doesn't change in the E4. Use this beastly Pokèmon and you will not be sorry

Of those three birds, I like Kiyarok the most. Fast Electric-types in general have some of the best Volt Switches I know, making them great pivots for any defensive team I make. Although, I would only have room for Kiyarok if I rotated my Amaya/Sinnoh Grand Festival team to allow it in, for I already have my six 'mons planned for it and am not entirely certain Kiyarok's Electric/Flying typing will prove helpful for my purposes of defensive cores.

This is an unfortunate line. They come in at the same time as Amirok, and are just entirely outclassed in any role they can fill.

If you need a flying typed attacker, Amirok is far superior as it is faster an able to go mixed. If you specifically need the psychic/flying type, both Miralupe and Harpure have better stat distributions and movepools.

If you need a defensive flying type Skarmory and Mantine are avaliable. If you specifically need that psychic/flying combo defensively, good luck; it's a pretty horrible typing defensively.

In terms of using it, be prepared for it to be useless in most gyms. Diedre's ghosts take it down easily.

In the West, Aeolura will be okay against Pyrrha, but not fantastic. Ezio's team has relatively high Special Defense stats, but Aeolura can keep up with boosts the stadium grants. It gets destroyed by Miralupe pretty easily though.

In the east, Opal wrecks this and most of Bree's team does too. Avoid the East route if you insist upon using this.

Gregor has a team full of really good Pokémon, and things like Volterra easily tear apart Aeolura.

This Pokémon will be heavy during the elite 4 due to mediocre stats and poor coverage options. Sorry if you're a fan.

Serinavi
An interesting Pokémon competitively, but not that great in the TRPG unless you dedicate yourself to breeding one. Rather than go in depth with this one, I'm just going to say don't use it. It has a really bad levelset, low stats, and problems dealing with important opponents.

It can be useful if you breed perfect moves onto it, get its hidden ability, and load it with powerful TMs; however, it's hardly worth the effort. Just use Cardastra if you want the type combination.

Taralon, Secralon
This is a good line, but you need to go to West Amaya for it. Ground/Flying is a good typing that provides two great immunities. Both Mold Breaker and Tough Claws are great abilities. Most importantly, you'll evolve Taralon pretty quickly, and it's immediately useful in important battles.

Pyrrha gets ruined by Secralon. Bulldoze will be known by it, and this provides a move that deals a lot of damage and utility. Slowing down her team can grab slower party members a chance to shine. Also Terra Pulse.

Ezio's team is a bit more difficult to handle (watch out for Miralupe), but Secralon easily deals with Gallade and can take advantage of the low defense stats on his team.

Gregor has a harder time against Secralon than other flying types, because Volterra loses a lot of effectiveness due to Secralon's immunities. It's not going to solo Gregor, but it can make a bit of a splash.

This is worth using in the E4. I think not going in depth with effectiveness in the battles there is going to be a thing I continually do, bease those battles are a lot different than ones in the gyms. It's harder to give an idea of what will happen there do to TMs being present and such.